Was just doing some work on my pathfinders and I was wondering if anyone leaves the arms/gun off till later. I've also glued up my Kroot as well but they seem more forgiving thankfully.

What do people commonly sub-assemble for ease of painting? And how do you go about priming the little pieces and later gluing them since the paint isn't the best surface to adhere. My last army (Space Marines) were alright in this regard. The bolters always sat so close to the chest that it didn't matter, but the Tau are less forgiving.

I do a bit of mix and match. I prefer subassembly with touch up painting after gluing together. Using poster tact and empty medication bottles is a good painting device to get a good grip on the model parts without smudging your work by handling the piece.

I always do bigger suits in sub-assemblies. Breachers and Pathfinders too. Firewarriors and stealth suits usually get painted in whole sets.XV-8's and commanders usually get their weapons painted separately from the main body, due to the mechanics of magnetizing.

I generally do the body and head with no arms as one piece, and do the arms+gun separately on FWs and Pathfinders. Putting the head on at the beginning has never caused any problems, and I prefer being able to zenithal highlight everything at once.

XV8s and Commanders I prime, base coat w/ zenithal highlighting, then do the black joints that are hard to access when it’s built. Then I’ll build it and keep working. Jet packs and weapons are always last to be attached.

As a general rule I try not to let any one part get “ahead” of anything else. It’s easier to keep going for me and save all the satisfaction of completion until the end, rather than have one or two completed, and the rest are caught up on after.

Thanks all. My current pathfinders are all glued but I'm using them to test colour schemes anyway, so they'll be stripped later and usually they disassemble after that.

I plan on magnetising most of my suits so that'll help. How do you prime little bits like that after? (Most of my Space Marines I did on the sprue if I was doing sub-assemblies). I'm thinking cocktail sticks and blu-tac.

Cut a piece of card from the box your models came in (usually one of the bigger faces) and put some masking tape across it, sticky side up. Then put your models on, spray one side, leave it 5-10 minutes to dry and then repeat the process again to prime the other side.